News & Analysis
Eric Lidow, International Rectifier founder, dies at 100
Brian Fuller
1/22/2013 1:45 AM EST
Eric Lidow, a photovoltaics whiz kid who fled Nazi Germany with $14
in his pocket and went on to become a power-electronics pioneer and
multimillionaire philanthropist in the United States, died Jan. 18
at the age of 100.
Lidow, in the course of a remarkable, storied life, roomed with Leon Trotsky's son, started two
major companies--Selenium Corp. and
International Rectifier Corp.-- built a solar-powered vehicle ridden
in by Vice President Nixon and was a major arts benefactor in
Southern California. In 2007, EE Times honored
Lidow with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
At the time, Lidow, then 94, still ventured into his modest cinder block office near LAX almost every day, driving his own hybrid Toyota Highlander, and wearing a suit, tie and ever-present broad smile.
During a luncheon Q&A then at a favorite seaside Italian restaurant, he ranged over the major electronics achievements he'd seen his life:
Fleeing Germany
Lidow was born Dec. 22, 1912 in Vilnius, Lithuania. As a young Jew, he moved to Berlin in the 1930s, where the leading minds in mathmatics and engineering were teaching and where Lidow would study photovoltaics and room with Trotsky's son. In 1937, he received his EE from the Technical University of Berlin--his diploma studded with Nazi swastikas. Shortly thereafter, he fled Germany with $14 in his pocket, a Leica camera and not a single word of English in his vocabulary, arriving in New York in October of that year. In 1939, he moved across county to Los Angeles, where he founded Selenium Corp., in 1940. At first the company made selenium cells for exposure meters, but when the business turned sour, the company switched to making novel rectifiers. Thanks to the company's advanced power electronics and some defense contracts, Selenium Corp. prospered during World War II. Lidow sold it to Sperry Corp. in 1946.
The newly minted millionaire could have been content to retire young and hob-nob with Hollywood stars and starlets, but instead he spent the year working with the Red Cross to find his parents, Holocaust survivors, in Europe and bring them to America. The next year, he and his father, Leon, an ex-banker, started International Rectifier, which began by making selenium photoelectric cells and selenium rectifiers. Lidow was CEO until 1995 and Chairman of the Board until 2008.
Lidow, in the course of a remarkable, storied life, roomed with Leon Trotsky's son, started two
major companies--Selenium Corp. and
International Rectifier Corp.-- built a solar-powered vehicle ridden
in by Vice President Nixon and was a major arts benefactor in
Southern California. In 2007, EE Times honored
Lidow with its Lifetime Achievement Award. At the time, Lidow, then 94, still ventured into his modest cinder block office near LAX almost every day, driving his own hybrid Toyota Highlander, and wearing a suit, tie and ever-present broad smile.
During a luncheon Q&A then at a favorite seaside Italian restaurant, he ranged over the major electronics achievements he'd seen his life:
"The most practical one is the cellular telephone. It's made communication so easy. I'm very impressed by the advances in computers, but there's a tremendous danger to our education because of the availability of computers and the place they take in children's lives. They're spending too much time in front of the screen and not enough time with other people. You don't want Internet kids growing up to be antisocial, because that's what happening, I pity those people who try to get married on the Internet."Lidow's career was remarkable not only because he worked every day in it -- more than 60 years at IR alone -- but that he entered into it in the first place.
Fleeing Germany
Lidow was born Dec. 22, 1912 in Vilnius, Lithuania. As a young Jew, he moved to Berlin in the 1930s, where the leading minds in mathmatics and engineering were teaching and where Lidow would study photovoltaics and room with Trotsky's son. In 1937, he received his EE from the Technical University of Berlin--his diploma studded with Nazi swastikas. Shortly thereafter, he fled Germany with $14 in his pocket, a Leica camera and not a single word of English in his vocabulary, arriving in New York in October of that year. In 1939, he moved across county to Los Angeles, where he founded Selenium Corp., in 1940. At first the company made selenium cells for exposure meters, but when the business turned sour, the company switched to making novel rectifiers. Thanks to the company's advanced power electronics and some defense contracts, Selenium Corp. prospered during World War II. Lidow sold it to Sperry Corp. in 1946.
The newly minted millionaire could have been content to retire young and hob-nob with Hollywood stars and starlets, but instead he spent the year working with the Red Cross to find his parents, Holocaust survivors, in Europe and bring them to America. The next year, he and his father, Leon, an ex-banker, started International Rectifier, which began by making selenium photoelectric cells and selenium rectifiers. Lidow was CEO until 1995 and Chairman of the Board until 2008.
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dylan.mcgrath
1/22/2013 2:01 AM EST
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lidow once, very briefly. But I had no idea he'd led such an extraordinary life. Wow. Nice tribute to a true electronics pioneer.
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docdivakar
1/23/2013 1:29 PM EST
Dylan,there was an event here in the bay area years ago honoring Mr. Lidow. I missed it unfortunately.
Soon after Alex Lidow was involved with GaN-on-silicon technology, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC), we invited him to speak at IEEE Power Electronics society:
Is it the End of the Road for Silicon in Power Management? “How Big Things” Happen In America.
http://ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/pels/archive/2010meetings.html
MP Divakar
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William Miller
3/22/2013 8:28 AM EDT
This was a great man I can say on reading this article. And what he said about modern teens is 100% true. It bothers me too. Ignoring this issue now may influence our future greatly!
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William - http://www.carid.com/
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